Wasteful ATK Mohun Bagan rue missed chances as Mumbai City holds them to a 1-1 draw
ATK Mohun Bagan missed the golden opportunity of breaking into the top four as they could only manage a 1-1 draw against Mumbai City in ‘Match 80’ of the 2021-22 Indian Super League season. David Williams’ goal handed the Mariners an early lead, while a Pritam Kotal own goal helped the Islanders rescue a point.
ATK Mohun Bagan head coach Juan Ferrando made only one change to his starting XI as he reinstated Ashutosh Mehta in the right-back position in place of Prabir Das. On the other hand, Mumbai City head coach Des Buckingham handed new signing Diego Mauricio his Islanders debut while Mehtab Singh came in for the suspended Amey Ranawade. Mandar Rao Dessai also returned to the starting eleven replacing Vignesh Dakshinamurthy as the third and final change.
The Mariners had a positive start to the match and took only nine minutes to break the deadlock. Moroccan midfielder Ahmed Jahouh lost possession at the edge of the box and gave the ball away to Hugo Boumous, who then found Williams in space. The Aussie strike rifled the loose ball past Mohammed Nawaz in the Mumbai City goal to hand his team a one-goal lead.
The next phase of the game saw Liston Colaco keeping the Islanders’ defenders on their toes, but failed to have an end product. The missed opportunities proved costly, as Buckingham’s team equalized in the 24th minute. Bipin Singh found some space on the left flank and came up with an early cross, intending to find Mauricio in the penalty area. The Mariners’ skipper Kotal attempted to head the cross away for a corner but got his timing and connection horrendously wrong as he not only flat-footed Amrinder Singh in goal, but also found the back of the net with his header.
Williams almost handed Ferrando’s team the lead once again in the 36th minute when Colaco’s deflected freekick fell nicely for him, but his venomous header struck the crossbar and stayed out. Hardly three minutes later, Nawaz ambitiously came out of his lines to head a ball away but instead played it to Boumous, who did not pull the trigger himself and passed it on the right flank. The ball eventually found Colaco whose shot was on target, but Nawaz redeemed himself by making a crucial save.
The Mariners started the second half right from where they left the first. A brilliant low cross from Manvir Singh in the 48th minute found Williams who came up with a cheeky dummy as the ball rolled over to Boumous but his shot from outside the penalty area flew over the bar.
Igor Angulo failed to score the winner for Mumbai City
The Islanders had the opportunity to hit back four minutes later when Jahouh found substitute Igor Angulo in the penalty area with an accurate cross, but the Spaniard failed to get the desired connection on his header.
In the 76th minute, last season’s runners-up got a chance of scoring from a corner that reached Bose. While the defender’s header was saved by Nawaz, the ball was still loose inside the box. However, the ATK Mohun Bagan players were not agile enough to react before the Mumbai City defenders did.
Nine minutes later, substitute Prabir got himself in a great position outside the box and went for glory himself, but lack of accuracy meant that the ball skimmed the crossbar while going out.
Having already cost his side two points, Kotal could have prevented the Mariners from even getting the draw, as in the dying minutes of the match, he nearly scored another own goal in a similar attempt to clear a cross but Amrinder came to his rescue this time around.
ATK Mohun Bagan has climbed to the fifth position on the standings with this draw will now face Hyderabad on Tuesday, while the sixth-placed Mumbai City will look to end their winless streak when they take on Chennaiyin next on Sunday.